Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry

Elizabeth McCracken’s first novel, The Giant’s House—a finalist for the 1996 National Book Award—was widely praised for its heart, its humor, and its poetic yet unsentimental voice. Like her extraordinary novel, McCracken’s stories are a delightful blend of eccentricity and romanticism. In the title story, a young man and his wife are intrigued and amused when a peculiar unknown aunt announces a surprise visit—only the old woman can’t be traced on the family tree. In “What We Know About the Lost Aztec Children,” the “normal” middle-class son of a former circus performer (the Armless Woman) must suddenly confront his mother’s pain. In “It’s Bad Luck to Die,” a young woman discovers that her husband’s loving creations—he’s a tattoo artist—make her feel at home in her skin for the first time. Daring, offbeat, and utterly unforgettable, Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry is the work of an unparalleled young storyteller who possesses a rare insight and unconventional wisdom far beyond her years. Her stories will steal your heart.

It’s bad luck to die —
Some have entertained angels, unaware —
Here’s your hat what’s your hurry —
The bar of our recent unhappiness —
Mercedes Kane —
What we know about the lost Aztec children —
June —
Secretary of State —
The goings-on of the world